Saving Allen West

1/4/12 2:39 PM EST

Most House members don't get a group solely devoted to protecting their interests during redistricting.

But if you're Allen West and you're a tea party hero, that's what you get.

The Broward County Republican Party has launched saveallenwest.com, a website designed to advocate for West's interests in Florida redistricting, which is expected to be wrapped up as soon as this month. Among some conservatives, there's concern that West's South Florida district could be dismantled even though Republicans control the line-drawing in the state.

The intra-party infighting that emerges when the once-a-decade process of reapportionment begins has erupted. In an open letter to members of the Florida legislature's redistricting committees, the top brass of the Broward Republican Party have registered this complaint: your maps don't protect our incumbent -- namely Allen West, one of the two black Republicans in Congress. They have launched a web site, saveallenwest.com, and are urging fellow GOPers to contact their legislators. The problem, they say, is the maps violate the constitutional requirement of compactness. (The Constitution also prohibits protection of incumbents.) West's current district stretches up the coast from Hollywood to Jupiter to capture the wealthier sections of Broward and Palm Beach Counties, while the new map stretches only up to Palm Beach Gardens and includes swaths of the more Democratic sections of Palm Beach and Broward counties farther from the coast, making the district less stringy and stretched out. Broward GOP Chairman Richard DeNapoli argues the districts should be stretched and calls for a "compact coastal district."